MTel R2: Anand beats Topalov with black

Round two report

Standings

Round 2 Wrap-up: A wild round with all three games decisive. That makes four decisive games after two rounds. Last year it took five rounds to hit that number. The much anticipated heavyweight brawl between the world's top two players did not disappoint. That is, if you're an Anand fan. Topalov may be rated #1 and have the FIDE title belt, but it didn't stop him from being demolished by Anand in a brilliant effort on the black side of the Ruy Lopez. A quiet opening and equal middlegame exploded into flames and Topalov was quickly toasted and bagged.

With the win Anand moved to 2/2, both wins coming with the black pieces. He is pursued by Peter Svidler and Gata Kamsky, who both won today to move to 1.5/2. Svidler kept Ponomariov on the run. Kamsky played a new idea in the Spanish with 13.Rb1 against Bacrot and backed up his novelty with strong play that netted a pawn. The rook and pawn endgame they reached "should" be drawn, but it turned into an adventure. Several times it looked like a simple draw, but Bacrot avoided the simple and Kamsky kept up the pressure. It came all the way down to rook versus knight with no pawns! This is tricky but usually drawn at the master level but both players were terribly short on time (no time increment in Sofia) and reaching the seventh hour of play, it was far from tablebase perfect. It was drawn, then lost, then drawn, then finally Kamsky put the hammer down after the Frenchman's final mistake.

The Brooklynite Kamsky runs into the Anand buzzsaw in tomorrow's third round. These two have a long history, the latest chapter in which was written at Corus in January when the badly out of practice Kamsky stunned frontrunner Anand.

Round two: extensively annotated games by GM Mihail Marin

Picture gallery

The following cartoons are by Chavdar Nikolov. They can be seen in the Shades of Red restaurant in Grand Hotel Sofia. The author is one of the most prominent Bulgarian caricaturists. His drawings have been published in many Bulgarian newspapers and magazines. He is the winner of the Grand Prix for caricature of the Union of Bulgarian Artists for 2004. Since 2005 he is the political caricaturist of Novinar daily newspaper.

• Official web site

Schedule and results